


Accidents Happen

by hibiren



Category: The Evil Within (Video Game)
Genre: Awkwardness, Banter, Dinner, Humor, Kissing, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-17
Updated: 2015-11-17
Packaged: 2018-05-02 01:45:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5229182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hibiren/pseuds/hibiren
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Joseph and Sebastian take a break from work to go out to dinner and Joseph's glasses get broken.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Dinner

**Author's Note:**

> wrote this while listening to "Slow" by Depeche Mode. That's some good stuff right there hehe

The day was going by as usual until around 6 p.m. After having suffered through a long day of interrogations and digging around for seemingly nonsensical case-related details, Sebastian and Joseph finally caught enough time to take a break.

“Want to get something to eat?” Sebastian offered, after making a face and setting the cup of cold coffee down on his desk. “It’d get us out of here for a while.”

“Seb, we do have work to do,” Joseph said with a sigh, but nodded anyway. He was hungry and tired, and maybe the fresh air and change of scenery would help clear his mind. “But I wouldn’t mind. Where to?”

“How about that diner down the street?”

Joseph shrugged, pulling his coat off of the back of his office chair so he could put it on. “Yeah, their food is good. Let’s go for it.”

Sebastian was a few paces behind him. He already had his trenchcoat on and seemed just as ready as Joseph to find something not work-related to do for the time being. While they both knew their jobs were important, food was also important. It made sense to say that if they didn’t have any food in a while, they couldn’t work effectively. It was hard enough to concentrate at times anyhow.

They ducked out of the offices and made their way down the street through the slightly chilled afternoon, to the little diner at the corner of the road. The two went there fairly often, given its close proximity, so when they walked inside one of the waitresses looked up and greeted them enthusiastically.

“Hi, guys! It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Been busy saving people, I bet,” the girl said, tucking a stray curl behind her ear before grabbing a couple of menus and gesturing toward a table.

“Eh. More or less,” Sebastian said with a shrug.

“We’ve certainly been busy,” Joseph added with a chuckle.

The waitress put their menus at one of the booths by the window and they sat down.

“What would you like to drink?”

“Just water, please,” Joseph said politely. He was just in the mood for something cold at this point, to keep his mind in order. The chilled air outside helped a bit but he was still feeling out of it. Like he needed to take a nap, he realized, but there was definitely no time for that. So a cold drink would have to suffice for now.

“Hm. I’ll have coffee,” Sebastian said with a nod, and the waitress scurried off to go bring them their drinks.

Dinner went by quicker than Joseph would have liked it to, given that they ordered their food and before they knew it, it was at their table. They ate in silence, mostly because they both hadn’t realized exactly how hungry they were until they had food.

Once Joseph had finished, he reached into his pants pocket for his wallet and Sebastian shook his head. “I’ve got this, Jo. Didn’t you pay last time?”

“I did, but I feel bad if you pay for me all the time.”

“Just let me pay,” Sebastian insisted.

“Alright, but I’m paying the tip.” Joseph fished out a five dollar bill from his wallet and slid it over to Sebastian, who pushed it to the corner of the table where it would stay safe until they left.

“Deal.”

After putting his wallet back, Joseph stood. “I’ll be right back, I’m going to go to the bathroom.”

“Have fun, then,” Sebastian said, tapping his fingers absentmindedly against the worn wood table while he waited for the waitress to come back so he could pay for their dinner.

Rolling his eyes, Joseph turned around and made his way toward the hallway in the restaurant where the bathrooms were. He knocked on the door. Nothing happened so he reached for the doorknob. Suddenly the door came flying open, hitting hard against Joseph’s head and knocking his glasses off where they fell against the floor, a series of thin cracks appearing across the glass of his lenses.

“Hey!” Joseph snapped, looking up at the man who stood before him—who was now trying to scoot away awkwardly like nothing happened. “My glasses!”

The man looked like he was about to say something but he turned and started walking away. Joseph was too preoccupied with his now-broken glasses to care, but he did hear Sebastian’s voice down the hall, followed by the other younger man’s a brief second later.

“What did you do to my partner?” Sebastian hissed, snatching a fistful of the man’s shirt to keep him in place. Joseph crouched on the floor, picking up his glasses, squinting so he could inspect the damage. That door had done quite a number on them...

“I-I didn’t mean to, it was an accident!”

“It damn well better have been an accident, or you’ll have more than broken glasses to worry about.”

“Sebastian, no,” Joseph said, standing up and trying to make his way down the hall to them. Without his glasses he was extremely near-sighted and therefore difficult for him to walk without feeling like he might trip over something. Since they were now useless, Joseph pocketed his glasses and continued slowly taking steps until he saw Sebastian’s blurred form in front of him. “Just drop it. Accidents happen. It’s fine.”

“Like this joker dropped your glasses? I don’t think so. You owe him a replacement pair, buddy,” Sebastian snarled. The waiters and waitresses, who were accustomed to Sebastian’s outbursts, carried on and minded their own business, while some of the other customers and equally frightened newer staff watched the three of them with anxious gazes.

“Alright, alright, just don’t, y’know, don’t hurt me or anything. I’ll pay for a replacement, I swear…”

“And?” Sebastian tightened his grip on the man’s shirt.

“O-oh, a-and… I’m sorry… for, um… breaking that guy’s glasses.”

“That’s right.” Sebastian let go after a moment. “Now go give him the money and get out of here.”

Quickly, the man pulled some twenty dollar bills from his wallet and shoved them at Joseph before nearly running out the door. Now that the ‘entertainment’ for the evening was gone, all the customers and staff began to slowly go back to their conversations and their meals. Joseph put the money away and sighed.

Sebastian turned and looked at Joseph, running his fingers through his deep brown hair to slick it back into place. “Man, Jo, what a mess.”

“What a mess? You’re the one causing unnecessary drama… I had it handled…”

“By handled you mean you would have let him just leave like that, and pay for his mistake? That doesn’t sound right.”

Joseph sighed. “Alright, I get the idea. I wasn’t exactly paying attention, though, so it’s not—”

“Let’s just get out of here and go back to work, okay? Like you said before, we have a lot of things to do and less time to do it after that… distraction.” Sebastian sighed and walked out the door, holding it open for Joseph, who took a few uneasy strides forward while making sure he was walking as carefully as possible.

“Right. Woah!” Joseph gasped as he tripped over the curb from misjudging a step. Sebastian immediately caught him and chuckled quietly, to which Joseph responded with a mutter of, “Don’t judge. It’s because I can’t see.”

“You sure you’re not just clumsy, Joseph? Just trying to make excuses?”

“Sebastian!” Joseph said. “You know my glasses are broken. You practically bullied the guy into giving me money. Actually, you did, and I’m surprised you got away with it.”

“Hey, I know my way around getting lunch money from punks.” Sebastian shrugged with a laugh as they continued walking slowly back toward their offices, Sebastian supporting Joseph and making sure he didn’t trip over anything else. “Of course, I was the one who used to have to give my money. But they learned quickly not to mess with me, because I started fighting back.”

“You, getting picked on? I don’t believe it,” Joseph said. “If anything I thought you’d be the one doing the bullying.”

“Oh, come on, Jo, I’m not that mean, am I?” Sebastian smirked. “I just put on an angry face when I have to.”

“More often than usual, I guess?” Joseph laughed quietly.

At that comment, Sebastian stopped moving, and Joseph did too, since it was too hard to keep walking without being in danger of missing a step again. He turned to face Joseph, and suddenly Joseph found himself with his back against the brick wall of a nearby building.

“What… what are you doing?” Joseph hesitated, squinting slightly to get a better look at his partner’s displeased face, while also trying not to think too much about the slightly uncomfortable situation he was in at the moment. “Hey, I didn’t mean it like that! I’m sorry.”

Sebastian inched closer, until his mouth was practically pressed to Joseph’s ear. After a moment passed, Joseph felt his heart beating frantically in his chest as he feared whatever crazy thing Sebastian was about to try. His partner leaned forward, body pressing lightly against Joseph’s, who was too shocked to say anything except for the occasional small noise of disbelief.

“I’m sorry, too,” Sebastian murmured against Joseph’s ear.

“S-sorry?”

“Yeah, I’m sorry… for this,” Sebastian smirked and suddenly his hand was ruffling Joseph’s hair aggressively. Joseph's face turned dark red and he swatted at his partner’s arm.

“H-Hey! This is completely unnecessary!” Joseph pushed his way past Sebastian and hid his face as he tried to find his way back to the offices. This whole evening was a mess from the time they left… he just wanted to go home, and go to sleep so he could wake up the next day and pretend like everything was just a really awkward, crazy dream.

“Oh? You know you like it when I mess with your hair, Joseph, have a little fun. And besides, accidents happen.”

“Fun?” Joseph muttered as he struggled to brush his hair back into relative order again. “Right…”

Sebastian reached the office first and he climbed up the stairs, opening the door for Joseph and bowing dramatically as he did so. “After you,” he said in a fake regal tone.

“No, after you, I insist,” Joseph said flatly, pushing his partner through the door. “Let’s just get back to work.”


	2. What Partners are For

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Joseph gets his replacement glasses, and is glad he can see again.

Joseph sat down at his desk, staring at all the papers that were still scattered across its surface. He tried to organize them again as Sebastian sat down across from him, shuffling his own papers around. It was difficult for Joseph now that he had no glasses, but he made a point to call his eye doctor to let them know he needed a replacement pair of glasses. Suddenly, Joseph remembered. He had a backup pair in his desk, so he scooted his chair back and opened the bottom drawer. Sure enough, the worn blue leather case was still there. He picked it up and pulled out the glasses. They were thick-framed, like his old ones, though a little smaller and with a wine-red tint to them.

When he put them on he realized how much worse his vision had gotten since the last time he wore them. It didn’t help at all that he couldn’t see before he put them on, but with the temporary replacements, everything was distorted and confusing to try to reorient himself to. If his prescription hadn’t changed that much it wouldn’t have been a problem, but he could barely close the drawer without difficulty.

“You okay over there?” Sebastian asked, hearing all of Joseph’s clamoring noises from the other side of the room. He passed his partner a confused glance, which was barely noticed.

“Fine. I just thought I’d try and see if I could use my old pair for now, but I guess I was wrong.” Joseph shrugged. It was worth a try, though, so at least he didn’t feel like he’d have to sit around doing nothing while he waited for replacements. “Guess I really am blind…”

It was near impossible for Joseph to finish working in his myopic state so he moved his chair over next to Sebastian to help him with paperwork things.

“Damn, now that you can’t see you’re all over my personal space.”

“I’m trying to help you. Do you want my help or not?”

Sebastian rolled his eyes and poked Joseph’s shoulder. “Yeah, yeah, I do…”

“Alright, so you see these footprints in the picture here? They do match up to our suspect’s shoe size, but if you look carefully, you can see…” Joseph went on explaining a few things, doing his best not to show how hard he was squinting to see the papers in front of them. Now that he felt like he was being useful again, time passed quicker. Before he knew it, it was time to go home, and Joseph reached for his keys before pausing.

“Hey, Seb?”

“Yeah?” Sebastian was busy trying to find his own keys since they’d been buried beneath a stack of papers by mistake.

“Can I ask you for a favor?”

“Sure, what is it?”

“I can’t drive,” Joseph muttered matter-of-factly.

“Want me to drop you off, then?” Sebastian asked, making a soft noise of approval once he snatched his keys up after fishing them out from the paper-stack.

“Yeah, if you don’t mind.”

“I’m not leaving my half-blinded partner here alone, if that’s what you were thinking. I was planning on taking you home anyway. God forbid you try to drive home by yourself like that.”

“You know I have more sense than that, Sebastian.”

“Hm, yeah, you’re right.” Sebastian shrugged and they walked out of the office to get ready to go home. Joseph had gotten a call that his glasses were ready for pickup, too, which made him more than happy.

“Well, you could just take me to the glasses place and then drop me off back here so I don’t keep you any longer since I’ll be able to, well, see… again. Also I won’t leave my car here overnight either. I don’t really like that idea…” Joseph kept pace with Sebastian, staying closer to him than he usually would so he could trace Sebastian’s steps.

Sebastian nodded. They finally reached Sebastian’s truck so he unlocked it and climbed inside. Joseph moved over to the passenger side and opened the door so he could get in as well. “Well, alright. I don’t mind being your chauffeur for now. It’s what partners are for, right? You’d do the same for me, of course.”

“Just be glad you don’t have glasses that can get broken.”

Sebastian turned on the car and they were soon on their way to the glasses place. “Jo? You ever tried contacts?”

Joseph winced as if he’d been pricked by a pin, Sebastian’s question bringing him a flashback to several years prior. “Ugh. Don’t remind me. I hate contacts. Feels like you’ve got something stuck in your eye, and it’s really uncomfortable. At least to me. I tried them back in college because I wanted to see if they’d be any easier to manage, but they were way too problematic. Spent an hour trying to put one in. My roommate, though, he could put his contacts in in… two seconds? If that? Pretty impressive. He’d had them for a while, but still. I could never even get close to that.”

“Huh,” Sebastian said, “You’re right. About it being impressive, I mean. Don’t think I could do contacts either…”

Joseph shrugged and watched out the window until they finally were able to get Joseph’s replacement pair of glasses. He was glad he had insurance for them, but having the cash from earlier—Joseph still felt badly about it, even if the money was rightly deserved—helped a lot. He put on the new pair, which had the same style of frames as his old ones, and blinked a few times. He could finally see again, which felt great after being almost blind for several hours. Joseph walked back out to the car and Sebastian headed back for the offices.

A few minutes down the road, Sebastian flicked on the radio to some country station. Joseph rolled his eyes, but said nothing.

“What?” Sebastian said, noting his partner’s sudden change in demeanor when the music started playing. “Don’t like country music? It’s some good stuff, you know.”

“Ugh. No.” He really didn’t, it was just something he’d always had an aversion to. He was more of a mellow and classical music person. Just how he’d been raised. “Not my thing.”

Sebastian sung happily along to whatever songs were on the radio, which all sounded the same to Joseph. Although if Joseph played classical music in his car he was sure Sebastian would say the same thing.

The drive back to the offices felt like forever because of the endless stream of it-all-sounds-the-same-and-too-many-banjoes music, but when they finally made it back, Joseph sighed as Sebastian turned off the car, glad to be rid of it.

“Here we are,” Sebastian said, glancing over to Joseph.

Joseph smiled. “Yeah, thanks again for driving me.”

“You’re welcome. Glad to help.” Suddenly Sebastian leaned over his seat so he could look into Joseph’s eyes. Joseph tensed up, remembering what had happened earlier. He scooted back as far as he could manage in the seat without trying to make it noticeable.

“Um… aren’t you… a little close? I mean…”

“I know.”

“You better not go for my hair again, or I’ll kick your a—” Joseph’s threat was cut off with a sudden kiss to the lips. Sebastian immediately pulled back after a moment and looked away, trying to hide his slightly blushing face.

“S-Seb, I, um… what—what was that?”

“I don’t know.” Sebastian glanced back at his partner, gaze full of embarrassment and a hint of shame.

“You don’t know?” Joseph’s mind raced with confusion. What the heck was going on? “Are you… sure? Are you feeling okay?” The day was weird enough, but to be kissed by his partner? Something strange was definitely going on.

“I’m fine, Jo, it was just… I mean, I don’t know,” Sebastian muttered, running a hand through his hair distractedly. “Would you believe me if I said it was an apology for making you listen to country music?”

“Um…”

“Damn, I’m sorry, forget it happened. It was an accident…”

Joseph smirked, reaching for Sebastian’s tie to pull him closer. Once more he found their lips pressed together in a passionate little kiss. When they pulled away, faces flushed, Joseph said with a small chuckle, “Hey. Accidents happen.”


End file.
